This application requests funds to partially equip a new animal research facility at the Health Sciences Center of the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. The new facility, known as the Lions Medical Research Building, is being built with nonfederal funds raised by the Medical School and the Lions Club at the cost of $6.7 million including $430,000 in animal facility construction costs. The 4 story complex, scheduled for occupancy in summer 1992, comprises 52,600 gsf of research, personnel and support space including a 6,000 gsf centralized animal research facility. The animal care facility will serve scientists in several disciplines but mainly investigators in the departments of Otolaryngology, Ophthalmology and Neurosurgery which have over 20 principal investigators with annual animal research support of $3.9 million including $3.62 million from the NIH. The central animal research facility is of modern design and meets or exceeds all applicable standards and consists of 9 animal holding rooms, receiving, cage wash room, separate storage rooms for food, bedding, clean cages and waste, as well as rooms for animal manipulation, necropsy surgery and surgery support. The average daily census is expected to be 250 rats, 180 chinchillas, 8 rhesus monkeys, 6 dogs, 40 rabbits, 12 cats and 150 other rodent species. The requested NIH funds along with matching University funds will be used to mainly purchase a cage washer, dog, monkey, rat and rabbit enclosures, surgery and necropsy tables and a small autoclave. This new animal care facility represents a very marked improvement over facilities now used to support these investigator's research programs and is part of the University's commitment to a program of animal care centralization and phased discontinuance of off-campus satellite facilities described further in the application. The $430,000 for construction of the animal care facility in the Lions Medical Research building represents a substantial commitment by the University to continue upgrading animal care facilities in which the University of Minnesota has allocated nearly $4.5 million in capital expenditures in the last 5 years. The animal care and use program of the Health Sciences Center which includes the new Lions Medical Research Building is accredited by AAALAC and is directed and managed by Laboratory Animal Medicine professionals in Research Animal Resources. The program is part of a centralized program of laboratory animal care on the Twin Cities Campus.